Je suis retournee!

So here I am, back at home. Got back a week ago and am happy to be back.

I'm feeling pretty lazy at the moment, so I'm not going to do a picture-laden post. I'm just going to link to my Picasa album where you can view all the pics from my trip.

Italy and France 2007

And I'll point out a few highlights and notable things:

- driving through the Tuscan countryside for the first time, when the song "Karma Chameleon" started playing on the radio. Very surreal.

- my first taste of pici, a "typical pasta" that's like, as Josh said, spaghettier spaghetti

- one interminable lunch at a rustic cafe in Radda, where the menu was set, the waiter old and toothless, and the dessert home-made

- peeking into the door of the community center in Sorrento on a Sunday to see old couples dancing to old songs at their social dance night

- the sublimely delicious four-flavor cup of gelato with chocolate mousse, banana, cappuccino and coconut. I wanted to mix it all up, pour it in a giant bathtub, and soak in it.

- Italian men hitting on me. I forgot how persistent they are, how constant their attentions despite brush-offs, how they seem to have radar for single ladies. It was definitely a relief to head to Paris and the blissful inattention of the Frenchmen.

- the view from my hotel in Sorrento. Ridonkulously pretty, any time of day.

- my seatmate on my flight from Napoli to Paris: British fashion designer Patrick who was very chatty, very nattily dressed, and very fond of his gin-and-tonics

- Le Relais D'Entrecote, a recommendation from my boss, was a great tasty laid-back steak-and-fries place on my first night in Paris

- pain au chocolat. Just...guh...can I eat it every morning?

- L'Eglise D'Auvers-sur-Oise, one of Van Gogh's paintings at the Musee D'Orsay, absolutely stunning in person. Full of energy and unsettling.

- the baby-poo-colored carpet and creepy vignette-covered wallpaper at our hotel in Paris

- visiting the Sacre Coeur for the first time when a service was going on, and the sounds of the nuns' song soared throughout the building, angelic, delicate, uplifting in such a beautiful setting

- the quaint adorableness of, oh, every single pastry shop in Paris. It just reminds me why I once told my family if I were ever to rob a place it would be a bakery.

Aaaaaand that's it! It was a good time. I didn't stress much, I saw a lot, and ate a lot, read a lot, walked a lot, and was even happy to be back home when I stepped foot in the door. What more can you ask from a vacation?